Pictures from the Voyagers (the probes, not the Starship)

http://news.com.com/2300-11397_3-6203472-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

The Smelly O

I'll just make my statements short.

1. It's certainly in their rights but why do they have to do it with such glee?
2. The message has been sent. What is the motive for prosecuting to the bitter end?
3. One illegal download does not equate to a loss of one sales.
4. Money is the root of all evil.

Who is cleverer ? Teacher or student??

[email joke]

One Night, 4 College Students Were Playing Till Late Night And Didn’t
Study For The Test Which Was Scheduled For The Next Day.

In the morning they thought of a plan. They made themselves look as
dirty and weird with grease and dirt. They then went up to the Dean and
said that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their return
the tyre of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way
back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test.

So the Dean said they can have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked
him and said they will be ready by that time.
On the third day they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as
this was a Special Condition Test, All four were required to sit in
seperate classrooms for the test.
They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of 2 questions with the total of 100 Marks.

Q.1. Your Name.........................( 2 MARKS )
Q.2. Which tyre burst ?...............( 98 MARKS )

a) Front Left
b) Front Right
c) Back Left
d) Back Right .....!!!

-

Yellow Ribbon Fair

http://www.yellowribbon.org.sg/yellowribbonfair.html

2 Sept 07, Sunday 10am-5pm
Changi Prison Link Center
Admission is Free

Come visit the Yellow Ribbon Fair and learn about our rehabilitation efforts and also witness the talents of our inmates and ex-offenders as they present their songs, poetry, art and multimedia showcase.

Title change

Ok, I had been thinking of it for sometime now. Why "addicted to gaming, books and margaritas" when all I blog about are on work, games, social events and complaints? Do I split off to another blog that writes on games and another one that writes on personal stuffs? And anyway, what kind of name is "Joran's posts?".
What's in a name? Well, it describes; It tells you what to expect. There won't be any difference in the things I write but hopefully it will be a constant reminder to me in keeping my topics in context.

19 remainding hostages would be set free

A day of good news for the families.
A day of defeat for moral rights.

A fool's errand.
Their appetites' whetted.

Dumplings and drinks

[post has been backdated]

Gaga had been doing well recently and generously offered to treat us a round of drinks at Scarlet Hotel. Everyone promptly replied with a reasonable delay of a day or two.

We went to our favourite dumpling place and waited for Bryan. There, Cheryl revealed that her twins are boys. Surprise!
I'm sure I remembered knowing it beforehand. Maybe I dreamt it...

At Scarlet, we ordered our 1-for-1 shooters. The drinks were all quite nice except for a green tea-whiskey that we ordered to introduce to Bryan; Tough luck there. Overall nice. Cheers!

Quote of the night:
Guy A: "I can eat anything!"
Guy B: "Famous last words"

Misinformation by greed

For the last two weeks, I have been suffering misinformation from the forums while searching for SAP resources.

[Background]
The forums are where people post questions and people answer them. If the answer is good, the requester is obliged to award points to them. Points are used to ask questions or some strange things.
[/Background]

--Example: Looking for linkage between Delivery Order and Material Document--

GuyNeedHelp: Hey guys, how do I find the Delivered Quantity? It's in VBEPE but it's a structure, so I can't get it from the tables. I can't JOIN the Delivery Order table with the Material Document table as well. Please help.

Crap #1: Go to the DO transaction and view the schedule lines tab. You can find Delivered Quantity there.

[My study & thoughts]: The guy was obviously asking a programming question; Quoting the structure name means that he had retrieved it from the transaction, no where else! This is akin to asking how to understand a particular recipe for a cake and someone tells you to go to the library.


Crap #2.1: Look that this link. It points to table relationships.
Crap #2.2: Look at these 4 links. They point at table relationships.
Crap #2.3: Look at these 2 links. They point at table relationships.

[My study & thoughts]: Amazingly, these 7 links all point to the same 2 drawings on table relationships. While informative, does not provide the answer. The guy who gave the 4 links is the winner; He pasted the links without realising the duplication. These guys were out for quick points as well.


Crap #3: Try these 4 functions. They'll give the Delivered Quantity in the VBEPE structure.

[My study & thoughts]: The functions don't work; To the original requester and my disappointment. I discovered later that the guy had simply copied them from an internal search in SAP, giving VBEP as a keyword. How I know? The order of the names are exactly the same as my own search. SAP didn't even bother to describe their use; How could this guy know what they are for? Grrr...


Crap #4: Try these tables and structures.

[My study & thoughts]: Doesn't work. The structure is wrong because it is only filled at runtime inside (surprise) the Delivery Order transaction. The tables don't work simply because the data isn't there. That's why we need the Material Document tables! What are these guys doing??!!


Conclusion:
After an hour of frustration, I gave up and went to my colleague to pour my grievances. I later found the link by myself. Those guys who had given unverified information, I spit on you!

A clash of views

[edited to remove things I might regret later]

As Odd Peer: "Do you know DG?"
JW: ??!!
"Ya, our HR. Why?"
As Odd Peer: "I think she's nice, is she single?"
JW: ...
"I have no idea."
"I think Teen Gyp is prettier."
As Odd Peer: "Oh, she's married. I saw that she had a ring."
JW: ...
"Married? Can't be."
As Odd Peer: "Why are you still single?"
JW: "Like that lor. Have, have. Don't have, don't have."
As Odd Peer: "Don't tell me got so many pretty girls you got no chance?"
JW: "Doesn't mean people single must chase. People single must get attached."
As Odd Peer: "Who's that girl in yellow?"
JW: "Don't know. I think I've never seen her before. Yup, pretty."

[snip]

As Odd Peer: "Your IT manager also nice, still single."
JW: "People manager..."
As Odd Peer: "So? Manager also people. She's also a woman. She also have needs."
JW: "I hardly know her till I was assigned to train. No chance to know other people."
As Odd Peer: "Yah, I notice in this country, people only care about their own work."
JW: "Not my country's culture, ok? It's this company's culture. I usually like to go around disturbing people. Here have to be careful."
As Odd Peer: "Oh no! We're alike!"
JW: "No... you go for all the singles."
As Odd Peer: ...

[snip]

-

My first lecturing stint

[Background] Members from regional subsidiaries were to come to our country for training. Two of us were to train them in ABAP; Another 4 of us will give training on functional knowledge. Work kept me busy and I didn't have time to prepare notes nor exercises. I am to teach the more advanced parts.
[/Background]

The first day we measured each other. I don't know what they make of me but I found their skill levels to be higher than I expected. A class of 8, decently smart, all technically inclined. My advantage? My wider exposure and my and longer years of experience in the field. Not by a lot, it will have to do.

On the second day, we moved to the challenge of Dialog Programming. My lack of preparation caught up with me as I found myself struggling to give them an effective demonstration. As the list of questions grew, I promised to answer them the next day. That night, I rushed out 2 example programs and had to drop the request on a Remote Function Call demo.

A slow-motion JW moved through a hectic third day. My class appeared happy with the extended lessons on Dialog Programming and ALV. Technically, we were done by 3pm but they continued to refine their programs. They were a fun bunch, who wanted to enjoy their time in this country as best as they can. I said my good-byes at 5pm and went back to my work.

In exchange for all the stress from keeping ahead of them, my skills have went up. Yet I should learn where to take arrows. Somewhere fleshier and not near the heart.

17-12

Day 2 of training

Beat

End of a little OT spree

Ok, it's over. My user didn't seem very thankful so that left a bad taste in the mouth. Ah well, I don't need to prove how hard I've worked. Do I?

17-10

Coping with work

-currently
Yesterday caught me busy massaging Excel data, together with frantic debugging. I was working under a tight deadline that kept encountering technical difficulties. This type of thing have to suffer alone. How do you tell your user that your delivery date because you just found out that the software version is older than what you have worked with and you're now missing a key feature? Nah, you owe me big, [insert user name].

-learning
Both are support roles but I can learn so much more. On the simple fact that more work gets done faster, way faster. Like yesterday, I transported codes 5 times. That would have taken 5-7 days in Ulu Ulu place. And the all-mysterious-config experience that I lacked? The key skill that kept me from landing jobs? I don't know what's so hard about it. Everything is just a search away...

-colleagues
DG is still a DG. Colleagues are indeed nice but I find myself standing and talking in the aisle more than anyone, heh.

-load
Abit heavy but perhaps I'm too new. However, I note that it usually rains in the morning and drizzles in the afternoon. By the end of the week, thunderstorms are not unexpected.

-my desk
Starting to take after my other desks...

15-10

Smart move, JW

Now you better magick up something or you can go eat your lofty ideals...

Catching up with ex colleagues x2

[post has been edited]

[1]
Due to my involvement with the Costcon during the WCG, I was late for Ah Bee's wedding. The dinner was about to start and I bumped into Siang chuen and Noelle, who were also looking for the seats. Finally, Eu Huat saw us and we're re-united with him, Dylan and Chee sheng.

Just like at the dinner of Xiaohui's, we talked about our work environment and asked about updates on colleagues we have not seen for some time. We still keep tabs on each other and admittedly, it's not very difficult.

Congratulations, Ah bee.


[Interlude]
We interrupt these reunion stories for another story.

After the dinner, I was waiting to get a cab to go to the Gohs. The traffic was bad and people were stealing my cabs by standing ahead of me and pretending not to see me. One lady, probably 19-20 years old was with her parents. The parents saw the traffic conditions and looked towards my direction, suggested taking the train. The girl raised her voiced at them, said she's going to get home herself, she's taking no stinking train that's so far away. Argue, argue, parents gave in. They moved away from my sight.

[2]
Taxi driver dropped me off, insisted on giving me a discount I met up with Shandy, Eric, Gim and Wei shei. We played MJ while Eric sat out preparing food. I won a wu-fan by pure dumb luck that got everyone screaming. We stopped for a break and Eric brought out the river prawns they caught today and opened up a bottle of white. Eat eat, drink drink, went back to our cards. Shandy was winning and I ended the game with a si-fan zi muo. Another piece of dumb luck, haha.

Stopped for a second round of river prawns. Just like the wedding, we did catching up as all of us are in different locations now. Gim and I were the ones who just moved while the others are happy where they are. We ended at 3+ and called it a night.

I slept 11 hours...

Star Trek properties

A collector's dream come true. A rich fan, that is.
http://www.startrekproperties.com/

"So how many years of ABAP experience do you have?"

What a loaded question. I told her anyway. Worse, I accepted her challenge.

Welcome to the working world where people look at how many years of experience you have rather than how good you actually are.

Srew up? Or success?

Girl on Girl

I know. It's a sexist show meant for guys. But it's still funny. haha...
Slow load, so you may want to pre-load.




More:
Episode 2 part 1
Episode 2 part 2